For the past few months, I have been working with and advising a smart team of SharePoint Experts who have been working on an IMPORTANT new SharePoint site. This site, http://www.recovery.gov, is amazing in its ability to scale to millions and millions of users using Amazon Cloud Services and SharePoint. More amazingly it went from RFP to live in only three months!
While the site looks very cool and has received a lot of good press, the big, untold story is the platform and the possible future of the site. Recovery.gov was reinvented not just to have a new look, but to have a new mission…Transparency at its core.
Transparency has three main components: Accountability, Transparency (Data/Process/Reporting), and Participation. The change from a traditional website to a SharePoint platform has not only allowed this site to be rapidly created and deployed, but has set the stage for greater improvements for the overall site in the near future. To see more about using SharePoint and other Microsoft Technologies for Transparency go to Gov_Ready.
At its core, SharePoint has built-in integration for reporting, exposing of information as services, collaboration, social networking, and other capabilities that can greatly improve how the public interact with the government.
So, if you think this first release of Recovery.gov is cool and useful, I suggest you stay tuned! This is just the beginning. More to come Oct 15th and Oct 31st.
References/Additional Information:
Interview with Earl Devaney (Chairman of the Recovery, Accountability & Transparency Board)
Follow Recovery.Gov: @RecoveryDotGov OR http://www.twitter.com/RecoveryDotGov
Site: http://www.recovery.gov
Follow Microsoft's Gov 2.0 and Transparency: http://www.twitter.com/FutureFed AND http://www.microsoftgovready.com